While the novel COVID-19 or coronavirus has forced to postpone the recent cricket matches, the cricket family is eagerly waiting to return on the field. Indian Head Coach Ravi Shastri has recently opened up about India’s early focus after returning to the game as he has pointed out to prioritise the Indian Premier League (IPL) and bilateral series over the T20 World Cup.
The IPL 2020 has been postponed amid coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, the India-South Africa ODI series has also faced the same fate while India’s some other upcoming international series can also be postponed.
On the other hand, Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 from 18th October to 15th November 2020, where 16 teams will participate.
Start with bilateral cricket: Ravi Shastri
However, Ravi Shastri believes that it will be better to resume international cricket with the bilateral series rather than the World Cup, mainly due to hectic planning to gather the multiple teams and run the complete tournament successfully.
Shastri told TOI, “I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on world events right now. Stay at home, ensure domestic cricket comes back to normal, cricketers at all levels – international, First Class, etc – all get back on the field. That’s the most important bit.
“Second: Start with bilateral cricket. If we (India) had to choose between hosting a World Cup and a bilateral tour, obviously, we’d settle for the bilateral. Instead of 15 teams flying in, we’d settle for one team flying in and playing an entire bilateral series at one or two grounds.”
When cricket resumes, we could give the IPL a priority: Ravi Shastri
While Shastri is currently against the World Cup tournament in this crisis, he is supporting the IPL after the resumption of the game. He feels that it is better to host the IPL than the World Cup in this crisis as the IPL can be organised in very few numbers of cities, which will be helpful for the logistic management.
Shastri added, “In that sense, what India’s lost out on is domestic cricket – the IPL for instance. When cricket resumes, we could give the IPL a priority.
“The difference between an international tournament and the IPL is that the IPL can be played between one or two cities and the logistics will be easier to manage.
“The same thing with bilaterals – it’ll be easier for us to tour one country and play there at specific grounds than 15-16 teams flying in during these times. The ICC needs to look at this objectively.”
The IPL 13 or IPL 2020 was initially scheduled to run between 29th March and 24th May 2020 where eight teams would participate. But the pandemic has forced to postpone this tournament, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is still unsure about the fate of this tournament. The BCCI can take a call on this tournament only after the end of lockdown period and ban of the international flying.